Take a look at the list of foods on the American Heart Association's (AHA) Check Mark endorsement program (below). After I saw the list, I was convinced either that the people who designed the program are either startlingly ignorant, or the AHA simply does this for money.

Many of these foods have nothing to do with health, heart or otherwise. In fact, many of these foods are prominent culprits that contribute to the American epidemic of obesity. There are cured meats with sodium nitrite (a potent cause of colon cancer). Some of these companies have been accused of unhealthy food manufacturing practices. Tyson Foods, for instance, has been in court many times defending their brutal factory farm practices and were the focus of a federal investigation for paying bribe money to USDA Secretary, Mike Espy. (Espy was acquitted but two Tyson executives were convicted, only to be later pardoned by then President Bill Clinton.)

This is a smarmy list to be included on. Though there are some rare healthy exceptions on the list, from the Track Your Plaque viewpoint, this is a list of shame, foods that have no place in a genuinely heart healthy nutrition program. 8th Continent, LLC8th Continent Fat Free Premium Original Soymilk8th Continent Fat Free Premium Vanilla Soymilk8th Continent Light Chocolate Soymilk8th Continent Light Original Soymilk8th Continent Light Vanilla Soymilk8th Continent Premium Chocolate Soymilk8th Continent Premium Original Soymilk8th Continent Premium Vanilla Soymilk

Does this mean that Diet Coke with vitamins would qualify to be "heart healthy" under the Standard Certification guidelines of the AHA? http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4973

Yeah, I really want to drink sodas to keep my heart healthy.

Amy Alkon

1/15/2011 5:24:14 PM |

Regarding the notion that cured meats cause colon cancer, have you personally read those studies? Aren't these cohort studies? And what of the fact that there are more nitrites in lettuce than in a hotdog? Wasn't the nitrite scare started by a small study of rats done at MIT in the 1970s?